health care up in the polls. let's play "hard ball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with the thunder on the right. one leader compared it to 9/11. an attack out of the sky. one conservative branded the chief justice of the united states a traitor. rush limbaugh called it a death

panel. listen to the souls screaming from the star board side. the lunatic right feels burnt. they could not destroy the country's only health care plan. this fury on the right is not looking for aç better health ce plan, they are looking to destroy the only one that has been. our guests are with us. gentlemen, thank you for being on tonight. we need true believers. this reaction from the screw ball right, is that a precursor that romney will fight this in november? >> if you look at the poll numbers, the country is split on the health care. >> the gallup polls yesterday. 46% disagree. 46% agree. and the independents, a three

point split. this favoring the president, 45% to 42%. >> it is a toss up. it doesn't give advantage. i think a lot of voters are kind of done and don't want to hear more. the other thing, this is the way to drive the base out if he is worried about the base, he shouldn't be. the other thing, too, if he goes into repeal, repeal, repeal, i talked to the obama campaign. they are ready to go toe-to-toe. they are ready to deal with that on the insurance. they know obama care is an abstract concept. it is split 50/50 in the public. if you look at the provisions, they have a lot of ammo to go after romney. >> does he fight this thingç o cool his jets? >> my bet is he trails off. they will have a repeal vote in

the house. >> they have a different agenda. joe, thanks for joining us. will, let's ask this. we all watched that performance by the president and opponent. the president was out there saying move on and other things to fight about. this guy sounds like he wants to fight this bill. do you think that is right or not? with david, he hasn't decided. >> i think it is a tough choice for him. i think it is a trap. if he decides to continue the discussion, the part you were for in massachusetts that we took from you, the individual mandate, is the least popular part of the bill. what david was talking about is right. every other provision of the bill enjoys anywhere between 62 to 80 plus support from voters, including represents. it's a bad discussion for him to

get into. the more you talk about it, the more people are going to realize what they like about the bill is what president obama did. then obama has to say, you know what, this is how we pay for these benefits. there is no way to make this bill work without the individual mandate. he can be the stern daddy who says, in order to have the benefits, we have to pay for them. this is how everybody kicks in. that is what romney said. >> can he fight romney and say you cannot come along? i was peoting roosevelt. when he had a fight, he would say they always come along and say we could have done it for you, too, and it could not cost you anything. mike allen wrote yesterday, obama looks like a winner. you cannot under estimate the subtle impact it has on casual voters. the attack on obama with focus groups now in taters.

the fact that obama looks strong. look at the numbers tonight. a couple of days ago, health care was down 28 or 30. he has already pulled even in 24 hours. >> mitt romney looks like a right wing whiner. fighting on something where people want to move on and have nothing to say except platitudes. there is nothing better in politics than winning. people want their president to come across -- but they want the president to come across as a strong leader and not pushed around by the opposition or supreme court. romney is out there pandering to the base and flip flopping to the mandate. this is a difficult case. >> i remember. i'm older than you guys. working for carter as a speech writer when i had that hat on. i have to tell you, joe, when he lost that marathon race, that 10

k race, they are looking for signs of the voters. some of itç is emblematic and some of it is human. i'll go back to yesterday, joe, if he lost, it would have been bigger than he wanted. >> that is right. a win is a win. the problem that romney has now that the congress has won this. they won big in 2010 on this issue and a lot of them want to fight that fight. that is not good for their presidential nominee. >> here is romney campaigning out with a new web video in response to the court decision. let's watch this one. >> in a few months, americans will cast their ballots and make a choice. do we continue stifling our economy? or do we chart a new course and change directions? the supreme court may have made their decision, but the american

people haven't. >> make sure the next president of the united states repeals obama care and replaces obama care. >> day one. job one. repeal obama care. >> wait a minute, doesn't he have other number ones? the keystone was number one? how much does he have in his barrel? >> it is easy to do a web ad. will they put money and put these ads in swing states? particularly we talked about the obama campaign. they already targeted women and hispanic voters. they used health care in a pro-active way as a positive. if you ask the hispanicç voter they put health care as number one. >> hispanic voters are high on health care. >> is he going to put this ad up in virginia, colorado, nevada, new mexico? arizona? i don't know. >> let's talk about the

targeti targeting of the ad. this is a designer ad. this cool guy in his 20s. they are targeting this guy as a rebel. he did not shave today. is that the target? a young male in his mid-20s? that guy might not even vote. >> based on what we have seen, he will not vote for mitt romney. this goes to the same issue. the way the polls are now going after yesterday, we're going to see it shift in intensity from the health care to the strong opposed from the last election to the stronger intensity in favor in this election. >> how do you know? >> because what the polls show evening out in the gallup poll, which is not favorable to democrats, traditionally, is very different from what we had a few weeks ago on the same issue. >> thank you, have a nice weekend. coming up, the umpire

streaks back. john roberts would be an umpire at the court, not a partisan. the right wing is calling him traitor. they think the supreme court is a tool of the right. it is not anymore. the politics of natural disastersç as the president is touring the wildfires in colorado. plus, god and government. how the evangelicals and tea party movements got together. here's how "the tonight show" yesterday handled the news. ♪ party in the house tonight ♪ ♪ everybody have a good time >> that and more late night spoofs coming up. this is "hardball." the president from interview: i talk to folks on rope lines and in coffee shops. people who have been out of work. you can

tell it wears on them. narrator: he's fought to pull us out of economic crisis for three years. and he still is. president obama's plan keeps taxes down for the middle class, invests in education and asks the wealthy to pay their fair share. mitt romney and his billionaire allies can spend milions to distort the president's words. but they're not interested in rebuilding the middle class. he is. i'm barack obama and i

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back to "hardball." the anger machine has been focused on president obama. after yesterday's decision, that anger found a new target. the chief justice john roberts who voted with the liberals on the court, glenn beck is selling t-shirts with roberts face above the word "coward." roberts will be seen as a traitor. and the congress member from georgia says he doesn't feel like being roberts friend anymore. that is kind of high school. we will look at the reactions from the right with ron reagan. he is a political analyst for msnbc. here we are in high school, guys, when somebody just won the student council election and somebody didn't. this goes from the ferocious to

the crazy. last night on fox, sarah palin talked about apocalyptic warnings. let's watch. >> if obama i&o reelected, well america, you will no longer recognize the country today you truly love and enjoy the freedom and prosperity and security. obama care is a harbinger of things to come. >> she has a sarcastic thing she puts in her voice. let's listen to rush limbaugh. >> our freedom of choice just met its death panel. the supreme court of the united states -- what has been upheld here is fraud. and the internal revenue service has just become barack obama's domestic army. >> was he wearing a prisoner's

costume on purpose? black and white stripes. joan, it dramatized. all it needs is a number on it. joan walsh, what do you think of rush limbaugh? i actually think they are angry. rush is an actor. palin has started screaming about this thing. she is really hurt that she lost this one. >> well, obama lies and freedom dies. it is so over the top. both of them. it would be so funny. it would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary. what we have here, chris, is an opportunity for the president -- he gets0aç do over. he gets to sell this plan again with the light of the supreme court behind him. you know, they tortured him with death panels and all the other

lies and pulling the plug on grandmother. now rush is calling the supreme court a death panel. that's lovely. the president gets to go out in the light of day and with this great victory behind him and tell the american people in a very sober, proud way, what it does. yes, there will be more of the same. there will be more of your children getting to stay on your plan until they are 26 and find a good job. there will be more people getting coverage all they they have pre-existing conditions in their past. there will be more good things. >> you are right. people will pay attention. ron, it was like one of the movie football games where the guy throws the incredible block. john roberts blocks the defenders and then the scat back goes heading down the sidelines to the end zone. >> or maybe it is a football game where somebody grabs the ball and runs in the opposite direction. >> wrong way roberts.

>> exactly. wrong way roberts. we can't have this discussion without mentioning an issue that is full of irony here. that is that the individual mandate to buy private insurance is a republican conservative idea. it came out of the heritage foundation in 1993 as an alternative to the democratsç liberal single payer idea. the question you have to ask is if you want to cover everybody, how will you do it without a mandate and without universal single payer? it can't be done. >> and you think the heritage foundation plan came through the heritage except through the white house, would it be constitutional? michael savage talked about this. let's listen to the worst. >> it's well known that roberts

unfortunately for him, has suffered from epeleptic seizures. he has been on medication. doctors will tell you that medication used for epileptic seizures can be used for d disord disorders. you can see the cognitive problems. >> he never said he was epileptic. congress member jack kingston of georgia tweeted today. with obama care ruling, i feel like i just lost two great friends. america and justice roberts. ron, this is so over the top. this is like some high school. i don't know how to explain it. it isç very sad.

>> the republicans feel betrayed here. they thought they had the supreme court comfortably on their side by 5-4 margin. there goes roberts in the other direction. they are furious at him. roberts, with an eye on the credibility of the court, realizing a 5-4 decision overturning the law, would have cut the slender thread by the credibility of the court hangs. he did not want to go there. >> joan, back on this, it seems to me, did you watch jean schmitt, the congress member from the midwest and her reaction. she got the story wrong watching fox. she was seized with a seizure of excitement that the bill had been declared unconstitutional. it was physical. >> it was reaction. >> what do you make of it? is it that important to them that the president be destroyed? >> that is exactly what it is. it is that important to them. they have been saying this all along. it was going to be his waterloo.

jim demint told us that. the idea that he was going to live to fight another battle. he won this battle, chris, and it was john roberts that did it to them, it was too much to bear. how do you spike the football if you think that, oh, yeah, now sick people will be thrown off insurance. yeah! go america. how is that exciting? the only thing that is exciting if they were going to deal the president what they hoped would be a mortal blow. you and david corn coveredç it well. this is a huge victory for the president. it would have been a disaster to have it overturned. it is an amazing record. >> before you tell us what we will do -- somebody once said before you tell me what you will do, tell me what you have done. for the fun of it, let's watch jean schmitt. this is what it would liook lik

across the country for days and months. this is jean schmitt thinking this was struck down by the court. here is a clip. >> yes! yes! >> speak? >> oh, thank god! they struck down the mandate. >> they took it away. >> yes! yes! >> wow. that's what it looks like nationwide. have a nice weekend. you have something to celebrate. ron reagan and joan walsh, it is great to have you on the show. up next, the late night comics take onúçi politics. it is coming up on "hardball." the place for politics. els.co yu find t he pfect hotel. because we only do hotels. wow. i like that. nice no. laugh... awe uch

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back to "hardball" and to

the "side show." it was historic when president obama made his address after his bill was upheld by the supreme court. some late night comics cut loose with his excitement. >> this is a big win for president obama. after the ruling, he addressed the nation from the east room of the white house where he explained this was a victory, not for him, butç for all of u. >> i know there will be a lot of discussion today about the politics of all this. about who won and who lost. that's how these things tend to be viewed here in washington. that discussion completely misses the point. >> he didn't want to gloat, but if you watch his body language closely, you could see he was feeling pretty good about it. ♪ ♪ ♪ rocking in the house tonight ♪ everybody, let's have a good time ♪

♪ lose your mind ♪ everybody have a good time >> that is so well done. democrats are celebrating the victory take a listen to bobby jindal. he may have ruffled some feathered at team romney. >> he will repeal the obama care tax increase. he will repeal obama care as soon as he is elected. >> catch that? obam-ney care. sticking it to mitt romney. that is not all jindal has had to say. here is how he plans to handle implementing the provisions in his state. >> we are not moving forward. we are not implementing obama here in louisiana. we will do everything we can do get rid of obama care. the 10thç amendment of the

constitution needs to mean something. >> that puts him in the ranks with the kentucky senator rand paul. this doesn't change the fact that the law is unconstitutional. that is "hardball." coming up next is "your business with j.j. ramburg." ok! who gets occasional constipation,

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